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You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

G-Fafif Feb 28 2013 04:59 PM

That bloated feeling you likely had 30 years ago tonight was from the overlong/ambitious finale of M*A*S*H that aired on this date in 1983. If you were alive and sentient, there's a decent chance you watched it since it stood as the most watched show ever for quite a long time. M*A*S*H alum Ken Levine reflects on it here, though he did not participate in the movie-length episode. This song got insane amounts of airplay in the week leading up to the show. Probably hasn't gotten much since. [youtube]Enz1f3yBgX0[/youtube]

metirish Feb 28 2013 06:59 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I was listening to War.

Benjamin Grimm Feb 28 2013 07:27 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I was... watching M*A*S*H! How did you know???

seawolf17 Feb 28 2013 07:28 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I was six years old, so... probably not.

themetfairy Feb 28 2013 07:49 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I watched.

Ashie62 Feb 28 2013 09:46 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I watched..

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 01 2013 05:24 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I watched too but was fully aware what a bloated POS that show had become by then. Good riddance!

metsmarathon Mar 01 2013 06:34 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

i was five. put me down in the no column.

smg58 Mar 01 2013 06:43 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I watched.

Frayed Knot Mar 01 2013 07:04 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

metirish wrote: I was listening to War. So apparently you're the kind of guy that would rather listen to war than watch one. That show, coming as it did during the pre home computer age and still in the early days of cable TV when the networks still reigned supreme, was perfectly timed to hold onto its record audience for a long time. It also occurred during the first wave of VCRs meaning that records were likely broken in the weeks leading up to it for sales of blank VHS (and Betamax) tapes as folks were moved to tape the show as a keepsake forever ... or at least until they realized how the quality of the show didn't quite call out for repeated viewings and the content was soon erased in favor a six episodes of 'America's Funniest Home Sex Mishaps' or something.. Like most shows, M*A*S*H had already lasted about three seasons too long before even getting to the much ballyhooed final.

Edgy MD Mar 01 2013 07:53 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Well, it already lasted about three times as long as the war it documented. Radar was a representative of all childhoods lost to war, and he spent most of his run wearing a cap to cover his receding hairline. Mike Farrell went bald during his run also, while Alda merely went gray. If it was a cable program of latter days, they may have tried to document the characters during the war's drawdown and their post-war lives. They, of course, tried to do that with After-M*A*S*H*, but everybody was too old, Larry Gelbart wasn't really involved, and the audience was probably pretty embittered by the slog of a drawdown of M*A*S*H*'s final season. Alda had been a fixture for years atop Good Housekeeping's Most Admired Men polls, right beside whoever the president and pope were at the moment --- filling the perfect niche that George Clooney would in the nineties, playing a doctor who is both a shameless womanizer and sensitive nurturer. It wasn't long after this episode ended, and perhaps before it did, that that he seemingly came to be considered the most annoying man in America. And he couldn't find a niche again until Woody Allen started casting him as a parody of himself, as if he had to say "I hate me too!" in order to get work again.

sharpie Mar 01 2013 08:00 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I really don't remember if I watched it or not. The show was never important to me and especially so by the end.

Mets – Willets Point Mar 01 2013 08:14 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I watched. I was a big M*A*S*H fan. The later seasons were bad (I say the show jumped the shark after Radar left) but the finale was well-done.

seawolf17 Mar 01 2013 09:02 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I am an Alan Alda fan, but for professional reasons.

Frayed Knot Mar 01 2013 09:08 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Edgy MD wrote: Alda had been a fixture for years atop Good Housekeeping's Most Admired Men polls, right beside whoever the president and pope were at the moment --- filling the perfect niche that George Clooney would in the nineties, playing a doctor who is both a shameless womanizer and sensitive nurturer. Alda was also a big supporter around that time of the Equal Rights Amendment, the then hot button issue for many women's groups, which positioned the actor perfectly both to play against the image of his most famous character and place him high on the admiration scale for readers of Good Housekeeping and the like.

Benjamin Grimm Mar 01 2013 09:13 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I remember when there was an "Alan Alda type" to describe men who were sensitive.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 01 2013 09:29 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

The problem was, Alan Alda and Hawkeye by the end of M*A*S*H were nearly indistinguishable.

Ashie62 Mar 01 2013 10:24 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

When I think of Alan Alda now I think of him as the cranky Senator in "The Aviator."

cooby Mar 01 2013 10:30 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Nope! I was at Lock Haven University at a WWE match. I was pregnant with my daughter and it was my mom's birthday, which is why I remember it all so well! I wore a maternity shirt for the first time that night so that people would have pity on me in case there was a riot. Jimmy Snuka, the Samoans, Lou Albano, et al. I do remember wishing I could watch the last episode of MASH though, because I was a loyal fan and I still like to watch it when I find it.

Edgy MD Mar 01 2013 10:39 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Ashie62 wrote: When I think of Alan Alda now I think of him as the cranky Senator in "The Aviator." That's sort of what I mean. He's found a new niche playing transparently self-serving jerks.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Mar 01 2013 10:40 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Of course it was the WWF then, not WWE (and not long since having changed from the WWWF).

Frayed Knot Mar 01 2013 10:41 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: The problem was, Alan Alda and Hawkeye by the end of M*A*S*H were nearly indistinguishable. Yeah, I think Alda probably got tired of playing the womanizing opposite of his women's lib promoting self and so Hawkeye morphed into the rather toned-down version of what he had been. He stopped chasing women in camp or there were consequences written into plots when he did; he and Hotlips became buddies; he'd get corrected or upstaged by a female doc from another unit and be unable to handle it, etc.

cooby Mar 01 2013 10:47 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Of course it was the WWF then, not WWE (and not long since having changed from the WWWF). yeah, I couldn't remember quite what it was called then. (if anything) I just remember it was on Saturday nights at midnight!

RealityChuck Mar 01 2013 11:06 AM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I didn't watch. The show had jumped the shark and I stopped watching a year or so before.

G-Fafif Mar 01 2013 12:25 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Edgy MD wrote: If it was a cable program of latter days, they may have tried to document the characters during the war's drawdown and their post-war lives. They, of course, tried to do that with After-M*A*S*H* The little-seen, little-remembered W*A*L*T*E*R. No kidding, a pilot for Radar's civilian life.

Edgy MD Mar 01 2013 12:50 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Wow, what an annoying theme song. Directed by Bill Bixby, too.

Zvon Mar 01 2013 02:57 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

I stopped watching MASH regularly after 3 or 4 seasons. I did tune in for the finale and did feel at the time it was must see historic TV (at least I was convinced it would be by the media buildup). Don't remember a thing about the episode. Was MASH the first long running prime time TV show to retire of its own accord? I got a kick out of the MASH parody that Futurama did. Hawkeye was a robot doctor who changed from comedic to melancholiness at the switch of a button.

G-Fafif Mar 01 2013 03:12 PM Re: You Were Probably Watching M*A*S*H 30 Years Ago Tonight

Mary Tyler Moore went out on top and of its own accord in 1977. First sitcom "finale," as opposed to simply the last episode that was broadcast, that I can recall.